Ikebana

A sprig of oak which spends most of its time sitting on the kitchen window sill. When the wind knocked it off its tree a couple of days ago, the leaf buds were merely swollen. Now they are starting to open and we wonder how far they will get before the sprig gives up.

A tentative step in the direction of ikebana? There is also the Japanese fondness for sprigs of cherry and plum blossom, with the latter cropping up quite a lot, as I recall, in the 'Tale of the Genji'.

PS: Thursday morning: some of the buds have started to burst. And one of the clusters has acquired a small number of small black bugs. Not clear whether they came in with the sprig or moved in subsequently.